"Human nature is that—when you discover an obvious trap, you focus on solving it, and subconsciously assume that 'the enemy has only tampered with this spot'."
Carlos curled the corners of his lips, looking rather pleased with himself. "Once Aiven solves the problem in the attic, he'll let his guard down and won't have any energy left to pay attention to other special energy fluctuations on the third floor. That way, my magic can be perfectly hidden."
"This is a magician's most common trick—" Carlos held up a finger, "—a sleight of hand."
Yu Xing fell silent for two seconds.
"Lingren knows the attic was tampered with," he said. "You collaborated with him?"
The corner of Carlos's eye twitched.
"How could I possibly collaborate with that piece of shit?" He let out a scoff, the disgust in his tone unmasked. "Not even if I were dead."
"However..." Carlos changed the subject, "—using him is always fine."
Yu Xing heard the bragging intent in his voice, didn't interrupt him, and made a gesture for him to "go on."
Carlos brushed the bangs across his forehead. "Lingren has designs on the altar. He wants to approach the core of the ritual, which means either a frontal assault or finding a reasonable identity to sneak in. I deliberately exposed my operation to him. Once Lingren discovered it, he'd naturally use that information to contact Aiven—regardless of whether he guessed my other arrangements, this was a reason to defect delivered right to his doorstep."
"Funai Er is bound to notice any subtle difference in her own manor, so I also asked Yiqing to hold her back and make sure she had to preside over the ritual the moment she got back, leaving her no time to pay attention to anything else."
Perhaps because he